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Hi all,

 

After reading forums for the past few hours I am beginning to feel discouraged about my PA application. I submitted my application recently and I have become super anxious. I was hoping to get opinions on my chance at an interview this cycle. 

 

I am 23 years old. I graduated in December 2014 from University of North Texas with my B.S. in Biology and minors in both chemistry and forensics. My overall CASPA GPA is 3.68 with an overall science GPA of 3.52. 

 

GRE scores were Verbal-159, Quant-156, Essay 4.

 

I do lack somewhat in healthcare experience.

 

I currently only have approximately 400 hours of experience as an Emergency Department Medical Scribe. I am still a current full time employee.

 

I have 50 hours of shadowing pediatric and emergency department PAs.

 

I have 1600 hours of work experience in a forensic lab. I was head of the wet chemistry department and some of these hours were devoted to research. 

 

I have 6 months volunteer work as a sexual assault victim advocate where I would accompany and provide clothing, necessities, and support to victims during hospital stay. 

 

I have 8 months experience in sensory therapy and development for four children on the autism spectrum. 

 

I have 2 years experience working at a law firm for medical claims on MVC accidents. 

 

I have also been on 5 different mission trips. However, none were medical in nature. 

 

Any opinions on my chances at an interview or suggestions of ways to improve my application would be appreciated. 

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If you selected your programs well and applied to at least 5 programs, focusing on those programs that do not place a lot of emphasis on HCE,  you will likely get in somewhere.

The strength of your application is your GPA and community service and volunteering. The significant weakness is in your HCE. working as a scribe limits the number of programs you can apply to. additionally, depending on research and labwork to substitute for HCE further limits the programs you can shoot for. If you don't get in this cycle I would recommend pursuing another type of HCE for 6-12 months that focuses on direct patient contact such as medical assistant, CNA,  or ER tech. good luck.

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Apply to neighboring states of Texas as well.. I had 4000+ hrs of CNA/supervising HCE + good GPA 3.7+/GRE 305+ other non-HCE and had no luck in Texas for some odd reason, I was younger than you when i applied - not sure if that played a role - i got interviews to almost every school outside of Texas that i applied too and ended up with an early start date program outside of Tx.

 

However I did have an older friend get into a Texas.

 

Best of luck.

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I understand the nice option of in-state tuition for TX residents, but expand your horizons a bit. Apply coast to coast. Some of the best programs are on the east coast and in the pacific NW. The two programs I applied to back in the day were 3000 miles apart.

there is much more out there in the world than just TX, in more ways than I could cover here...

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Thank you for all of the responses. They have all been very helpful.

 

I have thoroughly researched many programs and tried to find the ones that best fit with my experiences and prerequisites. (including accepting my scribe hours as HCE.)

 

I have applied to a total of 8 programs in a variety of states including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa. 

 

I'm most interested in the UNT program in Texas and Des Moines University in Iowa. 

 

Anyone have any experience with these programs?

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